Quotes About Aqueducts

Words are our slaves: they may be used to fetch a pair of slippers, or to build the great pyramid of Giza: they depend on syntax to make the order of the world manifest, to raise stones into arches and arches into aqueducts.

Like most Istanbul Turks I had little interest in Byzantium as a child. I associated the word with spooky, bearded, black-robed Greek Orthodox priests, with the aqueducts that still ran through the city, with the Hagia Sophia and the red brick walls of old churches. To me, these were remnants of an age so distant there was little need to know about it. Even the Ottomans who conquered Byzantium seemed very far away.

Roman engineering The Romans accomplished amazing feats of engineering as they built roads, bridges, and aqueducts (bridges for water conduits) across their empire. This 2,000-year-old Roman aqueduct at Segovia, in central Spain, has 128 arches. No mortar was used to cement the large blocks of granite together. Good roads were one of the reasons for the success of the Roman Empire. They allowed troops and supplies to be moved swiftly, before the enemy could either attack or escape.